Fun
West Wing Weekly
Dear Ann,
The specificity and depth of podcasts amazes me. A case in point is The West Wing Weekly. It’s an hour-long weekly podcast about a television series that ended in 2006. Laura Truffaut kindly recommended it to us.
According to the podcast’s FAQ, The West Wing Weekly is “an episode-by-episode discussion of one of television’s most beloved shows, co-hosted by one of its stars, Joshua Malina, along with Hrishikesh Hirway of Song Exploder.” (They both went to Yale, which is just enough of a premise for me to link once more to one of my favorite YouTubes, the Yale Whiffenpoofs’ rendition of Rainbow Connection. ) (Sorry/not sorry.)
To someone like me, who has not seen the entire series of The West Wing, The WWW is a tsimmes of allusions and inside jokes that I largely don’t understand, but nonetheless find fascinating. It’s like being a little kid, eavesdropping on the big kids talking about cool stuff. It’s smart and fun, and I’m sure it’s even smarter and funner if you know the show well.
I picked this recent episode at random and really enjoyed it.
(Of course, another thing you could do is cue up The West Wing for a good old-fashioned binge watch.)
The podcast is accompanied by a website that collects additional reading, links and imagery, and fun things like a short tribute video made by a superfan of The West Wing, Lin-Manuel Miranda, which is linked above.
Now I really need to know what a “flentl” is. (Oh wait–it’s explained in the Glossary of Terms.)
Thanks, Laura, for this gem.
Happy weekend to all!
Love,
Kay
Dear Kay, once again you are leading me (and others?) down the path of further knowledge on something I love – West Wing, and something I’ve not yet really taken to – podcasts.
It is because of you and Ann that I now occasionally dabble in Instagram and Twitter (ie I look at these, never yet posted to them but!).
So I now see us queuing up West Wing episodes from our cherished DVD box set and then listening to these podcasts, knitting all the while….
So thank you once again, and I look forward to your or Ann’s next shared discovery.
PS Any update on possible timing for your lovely store wares to be able to be shipped overseas?
Kelly and I binged watched the first two seasons around New Year’s Day. During the week after the inauguration, I kept having this intrusive fantasy thought that I wanted the ever wise Josiah Bartlet to come back and be president. As if. I yearned for calmness in the White House and in the country.
The nice thing about WW is each episode is only 45 minutes long and once you get the gist of the story, you can miss something (say, while focusing on your knitting, which I did often), and still follow along. Easy going TV.
Sorry, that wasn’t supposed to be a response to Vickir’s comment.
I loved “West Wing” when it aired … it made me think, it made me cry (CJ and her father with dementia) and I stuck with it, even when Sorkin left and it faltered, only to end in brilliance again. I often recommend it to a high school/college-age student who wants an entertaining civics lesson.
I re-watched some while sewing … and my issue now, with 45 in office – it’s depressing. It’s how some of us want our government to function. For me, it’s so hard to watch now. But I’ve been wanting to do the podcasts … so thanks.
Always wished I had that bumper sticker that said my, “Jed Barlett is my President.” And thanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda … counting the days till Hamilton in May!
You had me at tsimmes, so I looked it up. Thanks, Kay, for another onion in my garden of knowledge.
Ooh, thanks for this! The West Wing is one of my favorite shows. I actually knitflixed it from start to finish, immediately after the election in November. Might have to do that again 😀
Love your term “knitflix”!
I watched a couple of WW episodes when it was in progress and liked the show. Then I hooked up with a lovely man who owned the entire series on DVD…Now we stream episodes when the news is too horrifying to deal with. Love the podcast you linked to!
I don’t know why I missed this series when it was on. I have been binge watching while I knit. Thank goodness there is a *reality* political series to keep the glass half-full.
omg, love your knit-to-this culture tips! Updating my iPod NOW!
I adore this podcast, and have finally caught up on previous episodes-in fact this morning I took refuge from the cold snowy London weather in a local coffee shop, cued up the latest and happily worked on my Hadley sweater…
Wait, what? You haven’t seen the whole series? I’ve watched the entire series repeatedly so I could theoretically listen to the podcast w/o watching the episode first. But seriously, the only way to do it is watch the episode on TV, then listen to the podcast. You can knit to both!
About the Whiffenpoofs… what’s with that guy’s horizontal tie? And is he wearing LIPSTICK??!!
Kay, more fun knitting Netflix binge: Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories. Now, this is great viewing while knitting something mindless, as it’s in Japanese with English subtitles. Knitting lots of stockinette or garter? 4 inches of ribbing? This is your show. Each charming episode is 24 minutes. Long enough to make great progress, but short enough to catch yourself if you make a mistake and you don’t have to tink back too far. Let me know what you think!
Jed Bartlett IS my president and thanks for telling us of this! 🙂